Workshop | Spontaneous
Writing Sample for TEP
University Writing Center
Jaclyn Wells
Today’s agenda
Today’s goal is to provide general ideas and practice for
tackling the Spontaneous Writing Sample for TEP
Admissions. As we will discuss, this is a unique writing
situation that demands specific skills and processes.
Today, we will:
• Discuss the assignment and rubric
• Consider the challenges of this writing situation
• Talk about strategies for the timed writing process
• Practice elements of the writing process: pre-writing, editing
• Critique thesis statements, reasons, examples, and details
• Look at resources for additional help
What are you doing?
Let’s begin this workshop at the beginning by looking at the
directions for the Spontaneous Writing Sample.
What’s important in these directions?
• You are making an argument.
• You are supporting the argument with specific reasons, examples,
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and details.
You are drawing those reasons, examples, and details from your
own experience, observations, and readings.
You only have 45 minutes for the whole process: prewriting/planning, drafting, and editing.
You will have a dictionary, but no spell check, autocorrect, etc.
Your writing will be evaluated with a specific rubric.
How are you being evaluated?
At this point, you have probably all seen the rubric for the
Spontaneous Writing Sample. Have you studied it closely?
Let’s look at this rubric and discuss the dimensions.
What do these dimensions mean?
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5.
6.
Thesis
Organization
Key ideas and details
Sentence variety
Use of language
Grammar, usage, mechanics
What are the challenges?
You have probably been writing in a variety of situations for
a long time: papers in high school, more papers in college
writing classes, and essays exams in high school and
college. So, what is difficult about this particular situation?
• You are making an argument. Not just exploring your ideas,
reflecting on your experience, or summarizing something you’ve
read. Those might form a part of what you do, but stating and
supporting a specific position is fundamental.
• You have limited resources: You will not have the internet to find
support for your arguments, and you will not have spellcheck to
proofread. You are on your own.
• You have to condense your entire writing process—pre-writing,
writing, and editing—down to 45 minutes.
• The positions are complex.
The writing process
Everyone follows a different writing process. If your process
looks different from someone else’s, that does not
necessarily mean you are doing it wrong.
That said, most successful writers follow some version of
the following steps:
• Pre-writing (planning), which can include brainstorming ideas,
mapping (especially if you’re a visual learner), and outlining.
• Drafting. This is the actual writing part.
• Revising for “higher-order concerns,” so things like thesis,
organization, development of ideas, etc.
• Editing for “lower-order concerns,” so things like spelling, grammar,
mechanics, and sentence variety.
The timed writing process
What’s difficult about timed writing is that you have to
condense these steps down into 45 minutes. Even when
what you’re writing is short, that’s quite intimidating,
especially when the stakes are high.
Many writers are tempted to save time by skipping steps.
DON’T!
Most important advice…ever
The number one mistake people make in timed writing
situations is skipping important parts of the writing process,
particularly pre-writing/planning and editing.
If you take nothing else away from today, remember:
Even though you only have 45 minutes, it is crucial to
slow down and include pre-writing and editing in your
process. You need time to plan your essay by
brainstorming ideas, crafting a thesis, and creating an
outline. You need time to edit your essay so you don’t
make silly mistakes like spelling or grammar errors.
Why pre-write?
The problems with skipping pre-writing are many:
• When you jump right into drafting, your first paragraph or two are
pre-writing. You’re not making an argument for an audience;
instead, you’re thinking out your ideas in writing. You do not want
your reader to see this messy process.
• Your thesis and organization go out the window because you have
not allowed yourself time to plan before you begin writing.
• You leave out key ideas and details that you might have thought if
you’d allowed yourself time to think. Maybe you will think of those
ideas as you write, but by that point, they end up all over the place
because you haven’t planned where in the essay to put them.
• You sometimes end up writing too much. Your goal here is to write
an effective essay, not just a long one. Quality, not quantity.
Why revise?
When you revise, you focus on higher-order concerns like
thesis, organization, transitions, and development of ideas.
It is true that you will not have enough time to make major
revisions to your essay after drafting. In a timed writing
situation, this is simply unrealistic. However, you can:
• Check that your thesis statement is clear, strong, and reflective of
the rest of your essay. And if it’s not, you can revise the statement.
• Look at the transitions between your body paragraphs and add in
better transition words and phrases to improve the flow.
• Consider your key ideas and details. While you will not have time to
re-write them, you might have time to insert an extra example here
and there and erase details that you realize are irrelevant.
Why edit?
When you skip editing or neglect to leave adequate editing
time, you make mistakes that you should catch. A couple
points you may not realize:
• We are not able to edit quickly. When you “edit” by skimming your
essay, your brain will correct mistakes automatically instead of
register that the mistakes are there. Reading slowly and carefully—
as if you’re reading aloud—will help you catch homonym errors,
missing words, missing punctuation, run-on sentences, etc.
• We have grown so accustomed to autocorrect, spellcheck, and
texting language that we are perhaps even more prone to making
silly errors while drafting. Checking for these is very important.
• Editing well is possible in this test, since you will write in pencil
(bring an eraser!) and will have access to a dictionary.
How do I get it all done?
No one can tell you what process to follow. The process below is
only a suggestion—you might practice a couple of times and
tweak the process as needed.
1.
Pre-writing/planning: 5-10 minutes
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2.
Read the possible topics and choose one
Determine your position and draft a thesis that states it
Jot down ideas to support your position (remember: reasons, examples, details)
Map an outline (consider the 5-paragraph model)
Writing/drafting: 30-35 minutes
• Refer always to your pre-writing/planning notes
• Keep an eye on the clock so you can leave time to edit
• Remember: quality, not quantity
3.
Revising/editing: 5-10 minutes
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Read through the whole essay slowly, as though you’re reading aloud
Pay special attention to beginnings and endings: of paragraphs, of the essay
Double-check your thesis, topic sentences, and transitions
Look for errors you know you make commonly, such as homonyms or run-ons
Pre-writing practice
Let’s practice the all important step of pre-writing/planning
your essay. Take out a sheet of paper. With the example
topic below, take ten minutes to:
• Determine your position. Remember, you are discussing the extent
to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated.
• Draft a thesis that clearly states your position
• Jot down ideas to support your position. Remember, you need
reasons, examples, and details.
• Map an outline. Consider using the 5-paragraph model:
introduction with thesis, three body paragraphs, conclusion.
Example topic: “High school education should aim to
prepare all students to attend college.”
Editing in timed writing
The best way to prepare for editing in a timed writing situation is
to become familiar with your own common patterns of error.
Writers tend to make the same errors (and not make others)
repeatedly—we all have our unique error patterns. Knowing your
patterns will make proofreading easier.
Below are some particularly common errors. Even experienced
writers make them occasionally, especially in a timed writing
situation, so you might pay special attention when editing:
• Spelling, particularly homonyms like meet/meat or there/their
• Left out or doubled words
• Missing or unnecessary apostrophes
• Apostrophes indicate possession and contractions
• Apostrophes not necessary to make words plural
More common errors
Other common errors include:
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Fragment sentences
Run-ons and comma splices
Subject-verb agreement
Verb tense consistency
Parallel structure
Pronoun usage
Dangling modifiers
We do not have time to look at each of these common
errors, but you can follow the links to the Purdue Online
Writing Lab for more information. A University Writing
Center tutor can also work with you on any of these errors
or help you generally with your editing process.
Final suggestions
As you prepare for the Spontaneous Writing Sample, keep
these suggestions in mind:
• Timed writing is a unique situation that requires special skills. Even
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if you are a fantastic writer, you have to practice timed writing to do
it well and develop an effective process. The more you practice, the
better you will do. And don’t forget to time yourself as you practice!
Always remember: You are writing an argument, and you are
supporting it with reasons, examples, and details.
The 5-paragraph model (intro, 3 body paragraphs, conclusion)
does not work for all writing situations, but it can provide a useful
blueprint for timed writing like this.
Go in knowing your weaknesses, particularly with sentence-level
errors. If you know that you really struggle with run-on sentences,
you can save time by looking for them specifically as you edit.
Strive to produce quality, not quantity.
Additional Resources
• The University Writing Center offers free one-on-one
consultations for all writers at UAB. Our tutors can help at
any stage of the writing process and with any type of
writing issue. You might meet with a tutor to get feedback
on practice samples, discuss your common issues, or
practice timed writing strategies. Make an appointment
online at our website: www.uab.edu/writingcenter.
• The UWC’s Ask-a-Tutor service can help with short
writing questions. Simply email askatutor@uab.edu with
your question and receive a response within 48 hours.
• The Purdue Online Writing Lab contains many
resources on the writing process and common writing
errors. Visit the OWL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/